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Oregon basketball is glass-half full entering final four games but knows it can't continue recent trend

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Oregon guard Joseph Young scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half Sunday against Washington State, typical for an Oregon team whose performances lately have varied wildly before and after halftime.
(The Associated Press)

With equal patches of brilliance and languor, Oregon’s half-to-half variance is a window into its 18-8 season in which the consistent through-line has been its inconsistency. That disparity has come into focus in the past four games in particular, when Oregon’s field goal shooting has been at least 10 percentage points different between halves. Meanwhile the team’s difference in energy can resemble a Lazarus impression.

“We’ve got to be ready to play,” coach Dana Altman said Sunday after Oregon’s second half made up for an opening 20 minutes in which it shot 38.1 percent.

The largest imbalance in the four-game stretch was Oregon’s Feb. 8 loss at Arizona State. Oregon shot 48.6 percent to rally from the 20-point halftime deficit it dug thanks to 25.0 percent first-half shooting.

The trend extended to Sunday, when the Ducks roared past Washington State, 67-53, thanks to a second half in which they rebounded to shoot 56 percent and outscore the Cougars by 21. UO’s full-court pressure delivered an energy unseen all game and forced eight second-half turnovers, scoring 14 points from them.

Beginning Thursday at UCLA, Oregon begins a challenging final four games of the regular season that ill-afford taking a half off.

“It's a little more important on the road, I always thought, to get off to a good start so it'll be important in UCLA that first four minutes,” Altman said. We'll need a little better start than the one we had tonight.”

Against Oregon State on Feb. 16, the Ducks put together easily their best first half of Pac-12 play and took a 28-10 lead after eight minutes. They shot 58.6 percent in that half, but a relatively cool 48.6 percent shooting and lagging defense allowed a Beavers’ rally that cut the lead to two.

Three days later, the Ducks shot 48.1 percent in the first half against Washington. It was a respectable half of work, but nothing like its 66.7 percent shooting after halftime.

There appears to be no single cause for the difference.

Senior point guard Johnathan Loyd recalled that before the Ducks' second-half surge against Arizona State, he and sophomore guard Damyean Dotson excoriated teammates during halftime. But against the Cougars, fixing first-half faults didn’t come from an impassioned speech, but rather a simple realization.

“We’re playing bad,” senior guard Jason Calliste said.

When Oregon has played well in its past four games, it’s easy to cite the boon from a single Duck’s performance. Against Arizona State it was Young scoring all 29 of his points in the final 20 minutes. Sunday it was senior Mike Moser stealing a WSU pass and dunking within the second-half’s first four seconds. He scored 15 of his game-high 21 after halftime.

Yet the Ducks say the good moments stem more from the team than one person: passes move faster on offense and keys are yelled out more frequently on defense.

“I think it just takes 12 guys being together and being on the same page, kind of like how we started that second half," Moser said Sunday. “Especially on the road, that's really when those slow starts can catch you and that's definitely not what you want playing against a good team and 10 or 15,000."

UO’s last balanced performance was Feb. 6 against Arizona. The Ducks shot 42 percent in each half and their loss was the result of a bad final five minutes, not a sagging half. The Ducks are 3-1 since, with all three victories against teams in the conference’s bottom half that offered a larger margin for error.

In its final four games, however, the Ducks face three of the Pac-12’s best in the Bruins, Arizona and Arizona State, teams UO lost to previously this season by a combined six points.

Whether you believe Oregon (18-8, 6-8 Pac-12) can continue its turnaround depends on whether you see its recent run half-full, or half-empty.

“Focus, attention to detail and we've got to play hard,” Calliste said. “That's what it boils down to.”